KEEPING ALL SQUAD SHARP IS VITAL SAYS CLOUGH

First teamers like Timmy Thiele, Stephen Bywater and Callum Reilly got a run out against Port Vale this week.

Clough says: “We are great believers that the senior payers have to play. At a lot of clubs you don’t get the senior players in the development squad games but however much training you do, the match situation is different.

“It’s like pre-season, when the lads come back and are all fit, they do all the running then the first game they come to it’s completely different.

"That’s why we want to keep the them ticking over. We have seven development games coming up in the next few weeks and they will play three or four of these if they aren’t getting a start in the first team.

“We also haven’t seen much of the likes of Marcus Harness, so it’s nice to see him involved and it gives us a chance to see what they can do."